Introducing Rob Morgus

Rob Morgus not only has a familiar last name, but is the latest addition to Obstructed View Sports. He will be writing the Don’t Toews Me, Bro blog going forward. He Comes from a splintered but promising writing background and will be covering all sorts of stuff as a columnist for Obstructed View Sports. I e-mailed with Rob to give him a chance to tell us what exactly he is doing here.

Welcome to the Obstructed View Sports, Rob. So, uh, do I know you?

Well, that’s a funny story. You see it all started when I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with my second llama named Al for a nature photography shoot. It was a beautiful African afternoon and the sun was just falling beyond the peak of the mountain when I was attacked by a pack of ravenous hyenas. I escaped by using Al as bait, but as I was running I tripped and fell into a bottomless pit. It was at this point that I was like, “Wait. Rob, you’ve never climbed Kilimanjaro. You’ve never even been to Africa.” I saw some light and crawled towards it. At that point I popped out of our collective mother. The rest is history.

That was quite a way of saying, yeah, we were brothers. But I’m for it.

I’m watching that NHL Network ad with Howie Morenz, about how he died after he broke his leg. It’s sad as shit. His great grandson is an early favorite for 2012 rookie of the year. None of that has to do with my next question.

Tell us about your writing history.

It was the 1930s if my memory serves me well. We’ve made some small changes to how we treat broken legs. Don’t worry, it won’t happen to you.

As for my writing experience, I’ve been writing sports for about seven years now. My first piece, about the similarities between George Orwell’s 1984 and the New England Patriots was actually nominated for a Pulitzer. You will find that in my writing I tend to make some stuff up. Or do I?

Yeah but according to the commercial, some would say he died of a broken heart and we still haven’t cured that shit. I’ll take all of that to mean that you took over my Kent News column when I graduated, then wrote for the short lived Hennesy at Halftime, a blog that had nothing to do with Ron Artest, and then took your talents to Letters to Colin Campbell earlier this year.

What do you plan to write about here at Obstructed View Sports?

Whatever catches my fancy, really. I am a man of many interests. Most of the time it will have some relation to sports, and I’m an expert at making up quotes. I’ve found the majority of my writing to have a level of cynicism, and when it comes to sport I consider myself something of a jack of all trades. I love motor sport, soccer, football (pro, college and high school), and hockey. I’m fascinated by the recruiting scene in college football and am an avid fantasy football and baseball manager. I say things I have no right to say given my limited sources and generally piss people off. So what can you expect at Obstructed View Sports? More of the same.

Anything else?

Oh, and I’m a rampant homer that holds nasty grudges.

Grudges are good. Grudges breed hate. In the word of Drew Magary, “Hate restores us. Hate focuses us. Hate keeps us warm at night and spoons us if we so desire it.” Drew is one of my writing influences. Who are yours?

I don’t really like any of the available stuff out there. I find Bill Simmons a little boring and Rick Reilly pretentious, but I read them constantly and they have both influenced the way I write. I preferred Reilly from his SI days, and still prefer SI to ESPN.

That’s why I only read the sports coverage on TMZ.com. Never a dull moment. So, let’s give the people a sample. I’ll ask you what I asked Austin. What do you think about the Cooke ban?

Honestly, I think he got what he deserved. I wouldn’t have minded a ban for the rest of the year. It was an idiotic flying elbow, blatantly targeted at the head of a defenseless opponent, from the blind side, into the boards. It looked a lot worse than it was, though. The level of inconsistency on the part of the NHL disciplinary system is the issue I have. It’s downright disgraceful. I can see why people call the league a joke. Cooke’s hit was nasty and dumb, but it didn’t result in any injuries. The point of the headshot rules, and suspensions or rules in general for that matter, is to protect players. I can understand the Cooke suspension, but at the same time McDonagh was not hurt on the play. Same can be said for Steve Ott with regards to Dany Heatley’s idiotic suspension.

Ok, I get it, it’s not ok to elbow an unsuspecting player, or any player, in the head, but no harm was done by either of these hits. Suspensions should undoubtedly be a tool to discipline stupid plays, but they should also be used to protect players and tell players that it is not ok to be reckless, even if it’s not deemed stupid. I’ve beat around the bush a lot here, and if you haven’t already figured it out, I’m referring to the Chara incident. The fact that Chara got off without as much as a fine, to me, is the problem with NHL discipline. I trust them to do the right thing when it comes to people like Matt Cooke and Trevor Gillies, but players need to understand that reckless play is just as bad as stupid play.

Agreed. I have no sympathy for the guys who prove they don’t respect the game. Throw the book at ‘em. You get last word.